Gary Bruchman
Gary Bruchman is a physical therapist assistant at Wellness Solutions, which means he is the one beside you for the working part of your plan of care: coaching the reps, adjusting the load, watching the form, and reporting back to the licensed physical therapist who wrote the plan. He graduated in 2018 from Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and he came into rehab from a background in physical education. Teaching movement was his first skill, and it is still his best one. He spends his days at two ends of the age range. With student athletes, the work is about honest progression: earning the return to the field instead of guessing at it, and cleaning up the mechanics that quietly turned a small complaint into a lost season. With seniors, the goal is simpler to describe and every bit as hard to earn. The stairs. Getting out of the car. The grandchild who wants to be picked up. The walk around the block that used to be nothing at all. Different rooms, same principle: capacity has to be built, never assumed. And if you want the other side of him, ask about the collection. Gary is an avid collector of 1980s and 1990s toys, with the kind of recall for it that makes a long set of exercises go by a lot faster than it should.
Gary teaches the movement before he loads it, which is why a student athlete and a grandparent can walk out of Wellness Solutions with plans built on exactly the same principle.
What guides the work.
Gary works from the plan of care your licensed physical therapist writes, and the two of them talk, so what happens on the floor matches what came out of your evaluation. You will not be handed a printed sheet and left in a corner. Sessions are one to one, form gets corrected while it is happening rather than after it has become a habit, and progressions are earned instead of scheduled. Baselines set at your evaluation are re-tested as you go, so you can see whether the plan is working. If it is not moving, it changes. Most people in Illinois can begin physical therapy without a physician referral, and we check your benefits before your first visit so you know where you stand.